Junior Cycle Home Economics
The specification for Junior Cycle Home Economics focuses on developing students’ understanding and skills to achieve an optimal, healthy and sustainable life through three inter-connected contextual strands: Food, Health and Culinary Skills; Responsible Family Living; and Textiles and Craft. Home Economics uses an interdisciplinary approach which encourages the integration of the three strands in the teaching and learning of the subject. It has been designed for a minimum of 200 hours timetabled student engagement across the three years of junior cycle.
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Strand 1:
Food, Health and Culinary Skills
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Strand 2:
Responsible Family Living
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Strand 3:
Textiles and Craftwork
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The students’ engagement and learning are optimised by a fully integrated experience of learning in Home Economics. To give further emphasis to the integrated nature of learning in Home Economics, the outcomes for each of the strands are grouped by reference to four elements. Each element focuses on the goals of the learning process, that is, the acquisition of new knowledge, skills and values. As the student progresses through each of the learning strands, there will be a systematic development of their fundamental knowledge, principles and values and key skills.
Assessment
The assessment of Home Economics at Junior Cycle incorporates both practical and theoretical components. The final grade awarded in based on a practical examination (50%) and a written paper (50%). In addition, there are two Classroom Based Assessments (CBAs), which are completed in Years 2 + 3 and are reported on their Junior Cycle Profile of Achievement (JCPA).
Classroom-Based Assessment 1 takes place in 2nd Year
A project-based Creative Textiles Classroom-Based Assessment will provide students with the opportunity to actively engage in a practical and creative way with the design brief process. They are asked to apply the design brief process to make/recycle a textile item for the individual or the home giving due regard to basic human needs, consumer trends, ecological issues and technology. Through this Classroom-Based Assessment students will develop their knowledge, understanding, skills, and values, thereby achieving many of the learning outcomes across Strands 2 and 3.
For the purposes of the learning outcomes and assessment in this specification the term ‘textile item’ encompasses all textile-based crafts for an individual and the home.
CBA 1: Creative Textiles
Students are given two options from which to choose one Creative Textiles project:
1. Make a textile item for an individual or the home
OR
2. Recycle or upcycle a textile item for an individual or the home
Option 1: Make a textile item for an individual or the home
Applying the design brief process and the principles of design and sustainability, students make a textile item for an individual or the home.
As part of the project, students will show evidence of:
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Applying the design brief process
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Applying the principles of design and sustainability
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Using basic hand sewing and/or machine sewing techniques in the making of the product
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Fabric embellishment techniques (where applicable)
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Appropriate textile care and maintenance.
Option 2: Recycle or upcycle a textile item for an individual or the home
Applying the design brief process and the principles of design and sustainability, students are asked to recycle or upcycle a textile item for an individual or the home.
In place of a grade, students will receive a comment/descriptor on their CBA1 on their Junior Cycle Profile of Achievement -JCPA (previously Junior Certificate) It will be reported as follows: Exceptional; Above Expectations; In Line with Expectations; Yet to Meet Expectations
CBA 2 takes place in 3rd Year
Classroom-Based Assessment 2: Food Literacy Skills Brief
The Food Literacy Skills Brief Classroom-Based Assessment will offer students the opportunity to demonstrate their culinary and creative food literacy skills and nutritional knowledge in the researching, analysing and planning of a food literacy skills brief for everyday living.
Classroom-Based Assessment 2 will be directly linked to the Practical Food Skills examination. Therefore, it will be based on a food literacy skills brief selected from a list of briefs issued annually by the State Examinations Commission. Students will use the design brief process to demonstrate their culinary and creative food literacy skills and nutritional knowledge by researching, analysing and planning the requirements for the brief. The briefs, issued by the State Examinations Commission, may include but not be exclusive to options from the following broad areas: healthy family meals to reflect the current healthy eating guidelines; a special dietary consideration or a diet-related disease; a particular stage of the lifecycle; healthy school lunches; a healthy homemade alternative of a commercial / takeaway meal; resourceful cookery; a food enterprise / farmers market product/s; ethnic cookery.
Students choose one brief from the list provided by the State Examinations Commission as the basis for their CBA and, utilising the design brief process, generate ideas and possible solutions for the chosen brief. Students use the prepared material to share in an appropriate way their thoughts on how to approach the practical food skills examination associated with the brief through a discussion with their peers.
As part of the CBA, students will use technology, where appropriate, in researching, analysing, planning and presenting their results.
Evidence of learning
For successful completion of this Classroom-Based Assessment, students will present an outline of their proposed solution to the brief for the practical food skills examination. The CBA will be assessed by the teacher using features of quality to be provided in Assessment Guidelines.
Final Examination
The final examination will consist of a practical food skills examination and a written examination. The practical examination and the written examination will each be allocated 50% of the marks available.
Practical food skills examination
Based on feedback, students reflect upon their preparatory work carried out as part of CBA 2 and the direction they will take it in for the practical food skills examination.
For the practical food skills examination, students will be required to demonstrate the application of nutritional knowledge and practical culinary skills in the execution of one of the briefs issued by the State Examinations Commission. The practical food skills examination will be of one hour and thirty minutes’ duration with an additional thirty minutes of preparation time prior to the commencement of the timed examination. It is an individual examination and will be completed by the end of year three.
Based on their chosen brief from CBA 2, students will demonstrate their culinary and creative food literacy skills by preparing, serving and evaluating healthy nutritious dishes or product/s to meet the requirements of the brief. The briefs, issued by the State Examinations Commission, may include but not be exclusive to options from the following broad areas: healthy family meals to reflect the current healthy eating guidelines; a special dietary consideration or a diet-related disease; a particular stage of the lifecycle; healthy school lunches; a healthy homemade alternative of a commercial / takeaway meal; resourceful cookery; a food enterprise / farmers market product/s; ethnic cookery.
As part of the practical examination, students will:
Written Examination
Students will sit a written examination of one and a half hour's duration. The written examination will take place at the end of third year. In any year, the learning outcomes to be assessed will constitute a sample of the relevant outcomes from the tables of learning outcomes. The final examination will be set and marked by the State Examinations Commission.